Opera
Yaron Lifschitz’s compelling production of Dido & Aeneas for Opera Australia brings the acrobatic entertainments of a European royal court into the 21st century. By Chantal Nguyen.
Circus and opera unite in Opera Australia’s Dido & Aeneas
Roll up! The circus is in town, but without a big top in sight. Instead, Opera Australia mounts Yaron Lifschitz’s circus rendition of Dido & Aeneas, the 17th century opera by English baroque composer Henry Purcell. Based on Virgil’s Aeneid, the libretto by poet laureate Nahum Tate recounts the doomed romance between Trojan warrior Aeneas and Dido, Queen of Carthage.
It is best known for its heart-rending aria “When I am laid in earth”, popularly called “Dido’s Lament”, and sung by everyone from opera star Jessye Norman to pop-rock idol Jeff Buckley. It also appears in soundtracks as diverse as that for Steven Spielberg’s Band of Brothers and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. With this kind of universal appeal, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Dido is now entering the world of circus.
Circus and opera might seem odd bedfellows, but the combination is compelling and lucrative, as shown by last year’s sold-out circus version of the opera Orpheus and Eurydice. Both Orpheus and Dido were originally staged by Opera Queensland with Lifschitz and the Brisbane-based Circa Ensemble, of which he is artistic director, and were so successful that Opera Australia soon came calling.
Circa is Australia’s largest performing arts exporter when measured by its number of international performances, last year clocking up more than 350 across 20 countries. It is, perhaps to Australia’s shame, better known overseas than at home. So strong is global demand that Lifschitz has been able to expand the company into multiple touring arms: one for Australia, one for North America and one for Europe, where Circa is especially popular. It also has a Brisbane training academy and a Cairns-based First Nations troupe.
Circa’s origins lie in the wave of contemporary circuses that emerged in the 1980s and ’90s, fostering household names in Australia such as Circus Oz and the Flying Fruit Fly Circus. Turning away from animal tricks, this new kind of circus explored the human form’s strength and beauty. The most successful example of the new wave was perhaps the Canadian juggernaut Cirque du Soleil.
Back then, Circa went by the distinctly unoperatic name of Rock n Roll Circus. Lifschitz, hailing from an intellectual family of Jewish South African migrants, was a theatre kid who counted Cate Blanchett and Toni Collette as his classmates at NIDA. In 1999 he answered an advertisement for artistic director and candidly told the interview panel he didn’t like circus very much. Ironically, he got the job. Lifschitz set to work with the critical eye of a circus outsider, renaming the troupe Circa in 2004 and developing its distinct artistic persona: a clean, intense and cerebral athleticism and a readiness to collaborate with highbrow classical arts companies. The latter requires the performers to put their circus skills at the service of the intellectual, dramatic stories Lifschitz aims to tell, drawing on an emotional depth not typical for acrobats. Circa now counts heavyweights such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Opera Queensland and Opera Australia among its collaborators. This latest production of Dido & Aeneas reminds us why these collaborations are so fascinating.
Visually, Lifschitz has chosen a cabaret-inspired film noir aesthetic for this Dido. Almost everything is black or white, from the chessboard floor to the acrobats’ smoky lace leotards to Aeneas’s tuxedo (Libby McDonnell’s costumes and Lifschitz’s set). It’s all dramatically illumined by high-contrast chiaroscuro lighting (Matthew Marshall’s design). The intense monochrome gives the opera – already a lean, mean force of nature at under 80 minutes – an even more heightened cinematic intensity. You can almost smell the film noir cigarette smoke curling up off
the stage.
The sole exception is Dido’s hair – a shocking fluoro-orange Charleston wig. Under that wig is rising star Anna Dowsley, in superb vocal and dramatic form. Her rich mezzo-soprano is effortlessly secure, colouring the music in a rainbow of emotions. From her, “Dido’s Lament” becomes a naked, tragic plea, gorgeously phrased in long legato notes searing with pain.
Dowsley also plays the role of the Sorceress, in this production portrayed as the evil side of Dido’s persona in a not-fully-explained Jekyll and Hyde characterisation. It feels a lot like Roald Dahl’s dark fantasy novel The Witches, as Dido painfully peels off her orange bob and royal gown – like a snake shedding its skin – to reveal the Sorceress’s equally shocking bald pate and a second gown underneath, with skin-coloured reptilian strips slashed through. As the Sorceress, Dowsley’s voice drops some of its natural richness and dons piercing, metallic overtones.
Following Dowsley’s lead is a stalwart cast. Audience favourite Jane Ede delivers the goods as Dido’s perky handmaid, Belinda, ably supported by Sian Sharp’s Second Lady. Nicholas Jones brings fresh matinee idol vibes to Aeneas, although his voice does not yet have the security and power to match Dowsley’s. Angela Hogan and Keara Donohoe are particularly good as the witches: their “Ho Ho Ho” song with the chorus and Sorceress is baroque entertainment at its cackling, witchy best. Cathy-Di Zhang, who makes every role glamorous, is a luminous Mercury. Rounding out the cast is Gregory Brown, singing the sailor’s scene with a riotous, drunken pirate accent as the circus performers swing overhead on shipping ropes.
Purcell’s astonishing score is gorgeously played by the Opera Australia Orchestra, led by Erin Helyard in a break from his usual director’s position at the harpsichord with Pinchgut Opera. Helyard’s refined intuition for baroque opera is in full flight here: the phrasing is beautifully shaped, the melodies smooth and emotionally rich.
Then, finally, there is Circa. Lifschitz has shaped their movements with expression so that in some scenes it is like watching modern dance. In others, the stomach-plunging gravity-defying circus feats are unashamed stunts, with the Circa artists walking the stage in three-person-high human towers, spinning dizzyingly overhead on aerial swings and scaling each other’s backs and shoulders.
While conservative opera-goers may find the circus movement occasionally distracting, the rough-and-tumble gives the production a visceral interest and a deeper emotional range that becomes almost visual relief for the music. A trapeze artist, for example, becomes a physical and emotional extension of Dido’s heartbreak, and a group of acrobats pile around Aeneas, trapping him in a mound of human bodies as he strains forward, reaching for Dido.
The circus also adds to the believability of the setting: after all, an acrobatic troupe is just what you’d expect in a royal court. Lifschitz has spoken about Circa inhabiting the dissonant space between rambunctious circus entertainment and the world of classical arts. But in the context of European royal courts, the two have always been partners. In a baroque opera such as Dido & Aeneas, they make perfect sense together, with both art forms all the richer for this fascinating cross-pollination.
Dido & Aeneas plays at the Sydney Opera House until March 29.
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on March 22, 2025 as "High-wire drama".
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